Viggo Mortensen, 46, actor of « A History of Violence ». The adaptation of the Tolkien trilogy has made him a star.

The moustache, it is for the needs of Alatriste, a movie inspired by Arturo Perez Reverte’s novels where he plays under the direction of Augustin Diaz Yanes. Besides, seeing him there, looking weary in his thick anthracite with thin stripes suit, I have the feeling that Viggo Mortensen would willingly ditch the Croisette to go back to the shooting. He agrees : “ Festivals are not my cup of tea. But for Cronenberg, I would go until the end of the world…”

Viggo Mortensen-David Cronenberg : the association may seem unusual. After all, the actor, in activity for 22 years, is known by the mainstream audience for his interpretation of Aragorn, the humanist and romantic king of Lord of The Rings. A mega success in the box-office (1/4 of the world population has seen the trilogy adapting the Tolkien saga), to the opposite of the Canadian director’s author success. “I have admired Cronenberg for a long time, the tall guy with scruffy hair answers, and, if I have done commercial movies, I also have some others more personal…” Absolutely. Besides, it is not for the forgettable Daylight, Texas Chainsaw Massacre III or Perfect Murder that I had fantasized to meet him for a long time.

Rather for Indian Runner by Sean Penn (1991), where he plays a Vietnam veteran who comes back, tensed like a crossbow, as unpredictable, fascinating and disturbing as his cop brother is settled, normal and reassuring. Mortensen steals the scene, an electric presence with intense sensuality, and at the same time, like dematerialised : a piercing look which seems to stop nowhere, a fluid and furtive walk, like on airbags. Exactly like I perceive him today, escaping the interview to take pictures of Cronenberg, seated at the table near us, answering with lots of details when he knows there’s no chance to have a general view in twenty minutes. “Let me finish, otherwise we won’t get to the point…” he cuts when I interrupt him, with a soft voice but a palpable irritation.

On the shootings, Viggo Mortensen has the reputation of being the opposite, a hyper motivated actor with a great generosity. David Cronenberg praises this “detail maniac, very focused, paying attention to everything, who wants to know how his character moves, walks and dresses… He really was active in the creation of Tom Stall (the hero) even in his environment”. Among others, he brought personal things, a fish moneybox (!), bird and landscape pictures… idem for the role of Aragorn, that he actually had accepted immediately in replacement of an actor who didn’t fit and because the idea pleased his son, a fan of Tolkien.

His partners tell many anecdotes : every evening he would send a several pages fax to Peter Jackson to talk about his feelings, he would take his sword everywhere with him, do the fighting himself to the point of breaking a teeth (You can fix it with super glu he reportedly suggested before going to the dentist with his armor)… And all of them emphasize his extreme humility, hence this nickname “No Ego Viggo.” “It is just the way I do my job, he says. For me, a film is a collaboration which aims a good story with a real meaning”. Hence the pleasure he had to work with Cronenberg : “A History of Violence not only evokes violence in America, it also raises questions about authority, in particular masculine authority.”

An “intellectual” actor, the antithesis of the Hollywood everyone : this is the reputation of Viggo Mortensen. Painter, photographer, musician, poet, editor, polyglot born in Manhattan from a Danish father and an American mother, he lives in Venice Beach rather than the heart of Los Angeles, loves solitude (he is divorced with a punk band singer and separated from the daughter of painter Julian Schnabel), owns horses, generally gives interviews with naked feet, drinks mate all day long, quotes Kant, Rilke… “This image is an advertisement creation” he answers looking elsewhere. On the other hand, he livens up to the evocation of The Passion of Joan of Arc by Dreyer (1928), “a film of intact force and relevance, thanks, among others, to Falconetti’s interpretation”. The stranger to the vanity fair burns for the burnt alive ; la boucle est bouclée.